• World Sleep Day 2023 is an annual event observed on the Friday before the Spring Vernal Equinox to raise awareness about the significance of sleep.
  • This year, it falls on March 17, 2023.
• The World Sleep Committee of the World Sleep Society, founded by World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) and World Sleep Federation (WSF), organizes this day.
• The World Sleep Day 2023- theme by World Sleep Society is ‘Sleep is Essential for Health’.

• The KK Birla Foundation has announced that Tamil writer Sivasankari will be the recipient of the prestigious Saraswati Samman award for the year 2022, for her 2019 memoir, Surya Vamsam.
• The award is one of the most esteemed recognitions in Indian literature, and comes with a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh, a plaque, and a citation.
  • Apart from the Saraswati Samman, the KK Birla Foundation has also established two other literary awards: the Bihari Puraskar and the Vyas Samman.
• Sivasankari is a prolific writer with a career spanning over 50 years, during which she has written 36 novels, 48 novellas, 150 short stories, 15 travelogues, seven collections of essays, and three biographies, including one on former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
• Her literary contributions have been widely recognized, and her works have been translated into several Indian languages, as well as English, Japanese, and Ukrainian.

• Every year on March 18th, Global Recycling Day is celebrated to increase people’s awareness about the harmful effects of plastic on the environment.
• This day also promotes recycling as a crucial concept and encourages people to organize events throughout the year to spread awareness about this cause.
• The theme of Global Recycling Day 2023 is “Creative Innovation”.
• Global Recycling Day was established on March 18th, 2018, by the Global Recycling Foundation.

• It was launched in 2022 by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) with a mission of healthy and effectively managed network of 75 wetlands of national and international significance.
  • India has the largest network of Ramsar Sites in Asia
• It strives to enable a society ownership approach with communities leading at the forefront.

• Border Roads Organisation (BRO) reopened Zoji La on Srinagar-Kargil-Leh highway in record 68 days.
• Zoji La Pass is a high mountain pass at an elevation of 11,578 ft above sea level, located in Kargil district of Ladakh.
• It is the strategic link connecting Ladakh to Srinagar and the rest of India.
• Zojila Tunnel is being constructed to provide all-weather connectivity to Ladakh.
  • Once completed, at 14.15 km, it will be India’s longest road tunnel, and Asia’s longest bidirectional tunnel.

• The 10th edition of Global Terrorism Index (GTI) was released by Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
  • GTI covers global trends and patterns in terrorism.
• Afghanistan remains most impacted by terrorism for fourth consecutive year, followed by Burkina Faso and Somalia.
• India remained at 13^th while Pakistan ranked at 6^th .
• Deadliest terrorist groups of world are Islamic State (IS) and its affiliates, followed by al-Shabaab, Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM).
• The report said many countries face severe ecological changes, which are more likely to exist in conflict settings and intersect with terrorism.

• Indian Navy is participating in SEA DRAGON 23 exercise in waters off Guam, USA which has been scheduled from 15-30 March 23.
• It is a biennial coordinated multilateral anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercise for long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft.
• The exercise is hosted by the United States Navy, and it involves the participation of other friendly navies from Japan, Canada, South Korea, and India.
• It aims to achieve high levels of synergy and coordination between the participating countries based on their shared values and commitment to an open, inclusive Indo-Pacific.

Other Exercises between India and USA

• Malabar Exercise: Malabar series of exercises began in 1992. Members- India, US , Australia and Japan.
• VAJRA PRAHAR: Special Forces
• Yudh Abhyas: Military Training

• The Ministry of Textiles will shortly name the States identified for implementation of Prime Minister MITRA (Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel) scheme.
• States are identified through the challenge route and the PM MITRA parks will provide the best ecosystem for the textile industry to be collectively present in one location, with plug-and-play infrastructure, and improve the competitiveness of the textile value chain.
• The vision for 2030 is to achieve an economic value of $250 billion in production and $100 billion in export of textiles, apparel, and related products and this is achievable even though the industry faced a small setback in the current year.

About PM MITRA

• The PM MITRA scheme is inspired by the 5F vision – Farm to Fibre to Factory to Fashion to Foreign.
• It aspires to fulfil the vision of building an Aatmanirbhar Bharat and to position India strongly on the Global textiles map.

PM MITRA Parks

• PM MITRA Parks offer an opportunity to create an integrated textiles value chain right from spinning, weaving, processing/dyeing and printing to garment manufacturing at one location.
• These parks are envisaged to be located at sites which have inherent strengths for the textile industry to flourish and have the necessary linkages to succeed.
• The scheme envisages to leverage the Public Private Partnership model for fast-paced implementation in a time-bound manner.
• It will reduce logistics cost of industry.
• Intended to generate ~1 lakh direct and 2 lakh indirect employment per park.

• The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for capital acquisition proposals worth Rs 70,500 crore for the Armed Forces & Indian Coast Guard under ‘Buy Indian-IDDM’ (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) category of Defence Acquisition Policy (DAP), 2020.
  • AoN is the first step in long defence acquisition process, and may or may not necessarily culminate into a final order.
• Approval was granted for-
  • Indian Navy– BrahMos missiles, Shakti Electronic Warfare systems & Utility Helicopters-Maritime;
  • Indian Airforce – Long Range Stand-Off Weapon to be integrated on SU-30 MKI aircraft ;
  • Indian Army– High Mobility & Gun Towing Vehicles etc.;
  • Indian Coast Guard -Advanced Light Helicopters MK-III from HAL .
• DAP, 2020 was issued to streamline procurement process and provide a boost to indigenous arms manufacturing.
• DAP 2020 superseded Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) of 2016.
• It includes following procurement categories:
  • Buy (Indian – Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured),
  • Buy (Indian),
  • Buy and Make (Indian),
  • Buy (Global – Manufacture in India) and
  • Buy (Global).
• Highest priority is accorded to procurement under Buy (Indian-IDDM) category.
• Buy Indian-IDDM refers to acquisition of products from an Indian vendor that have a minimum of 50% Indigenous Content on cost basis of total contract price i.e.total contract price less taxes and duties.

About Defence Acquisition Council

• The DAC is the highest decision-making body in the Defence Ministry for deciding on new policies and capital acquisitions for the three services (Army, Navy and Air Force) and the Indian Coast Guard.
• The Minister of Defence is the Chairman of the Council.
• It was formed, after the Group of Ministers recommendations on ‘Reforming the National Security System’, in 2001, post Kargil War (1999).

• National Institute of Ocean Technology aims to set up green self-powered desalination plant in Lakshadweep.
  • Current desalination plants are powered by diesel generator sets – leading to air pollution and increase in operational cost due to diesel transportation to island.
• NIOT has established Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) plants on six Lakshadweep islands and one at Northern Chennai.

Technology used

• Desalination is the process of obtaining freshwater from either seawater or brackish water from estuaries.
• LTTD is a process under which warm surface seawater is flash evaporated at low pressure and vapour is condensed with cold deep seawater.
• Cold water condenses the warmer water (at the surface level) whose pressure has been lowered using vacuum pumps.
• Condensed water is free of salts and contaminants and fit to consume.
• Now, instead of diesel, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) technology will be used to generate energy to depressurize warmer water (previously, done through diesel powered vacuum pumps).

Benefits of LTTD

• Not require any chemical pre and post-treatment of seawater and thus pollution problems are minimal.
• Completely indigenous, robust and environment friendly.

About National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT)

• The National Institute of Ocean Technology(NIOT) was established in 1993 as an autonomous society under the Ministry of Earth Sciences in India.
• NIOT aims to develop reliable indigenous technologies to solve various engineering problems associated with the harvesting of non-living and living resources in India’s exclusive economic zone, which is about two-thirds of the land area of India.
• NIOT is the nodal institution for the Deep Ocean Mission.